PHILIP GREY ; 1827 - 1857 : AN IRISH MILITARY MAN.
Ireland , 1827 : The 'Catholic Association' , led by Daniel O'Connell (known as 'The Liberator' - not because he liberated this country from English 'rule' [which has still to be done] but because the majority of the country's population at that time considered O'Connell to be liberating them from political irrelevance), was a huge organisation ; 'associate membership' of 'The Catholic Association' cost one penny a month and , with the tens of thousands of members and associate members, the funds mounted-up ...
The small land-owners , those that worked for them , the many who had no jobs or land , the so-called 'middle class' and even the Catholic Clergy - all either joined or strongly supported 'The Catholic Association .......'
(MORE LATER).
WHERE MOUNTAINY MEN HAVE SOWN :
war and peace in rebel Cork ,
in the turbulent years 1916-21.
By Micheal O'Suilleabhain : published 1965.
COOLNACAHERA and COOMNACLOHY .......
".......We had the British Auxiliaries 'on the run' - except they had no safe exit ! One of their drivers was attempting to turn his lorry around......."
" A fierce fire was opened on the man and the lorry ; but it got away , and went off at a high speed towards Macroom . The driver was a stout fellow and made skilful use of available cover while he quickly completed the manoeuvre . We could now expect their reinforcements - it transpired that they were on the way in any case . Meanwhile , the Auxies were crowding into the cottages . To make more firing positions , they started to break loopholes in the cottage walls . For this they used every kind of tool available , including their bayonets . The loopholes were to prove , for them, very unprofitable...
...for , immediately the outer plaster was broken , the hole in the wall became the target for every marksman who fancied himself ; several British Auxiliaries were mortally wounded inside these breaches . We were now called on to follow up the enemy and move with the Lewis-Gun to a point due north of the cottages - this we did easily . The windows and doors were now under Lewis-Gun fire and that of about fifteen riflemen . The Auxiliaries were in a bad way ; their total strength of the morning must have been nearly ninty men . Apart from those strewn around the road and further afield as casualties , the remainder were packed into the two cottages and lying close to cover around outside them .
Now and again a man would rise and dash for the door - but none succeeded in getting in to the cottage . We saw an Auxie fall on the doorstop , wounded , yet not one of his own attempted to drag him in . To do so would have entailed no risk for those inside since our fire was parallel to that particular doorway , yet there the wounded man was allowed to remain ......."
(MORE LATER).
THE CONVICTION OF WILLIAM QUINN .......
' William Quinn was recently jailed for life in Britain having been convicted of the murder of a London policeman on the basis of evidence and an identification which has given rise to considerable controversy . '
BY MICHAEL FARRELL .
(First published in 'MAGILL' magazine , April 1988 , page 18).
Reproduced here in 9 parts.
(4 of 9).
Once in Dublin , the Gardai told British Police Officer Adrian Blackledge that William Quinn had refused to take part in an identification parade and he would have to identify him in court ; Quinn claims he had never been asked to participate in a parade . PC Blackledge was secretly brought into Green Street Courthouse in Dublin where William Quinn was in the centrally positioned dock , flanked by two prison officers . The Gardai had put two other men nearby , one of whom had a moustache . The man who killed British Police Officer Stephen Tibble was clean-shaven ; so was William Quinn .
PC Blackledge identified the man in the dock as the killer , although it seems his appearance did not tally with the description Blackledge had given at the time.......
(MORE LATER).
